Easy Meal Ideas For Toddlers

Feeding toddlers can be a challenging task. Sometimes they love food, other times they hate it. They might eat anything white, but don’t come near them with red food. Oh, wait, the colour of the day has just changed to yellow! They change their mind faster than you could prepare any food they ask for, so it’s no wonder you might be feeling reluctant to cook (or is it just me?). Who likes cooking meals that will go untouched at best and thrown all over the floor if you’re less lucky? But whether we like it or not, we need to feed our tots, so here are some ideas for meals that are easy to make and can be adjusted to suit the rest of the family.

Tots usually love pasta and it’s easy to hide extra veggies in the sauce. When you’re cooking spaghetti Bolognese for dinner, substitute the spaghetti for pasta shells, spirals or funny animal pasta shapes they sell for kids. It’ll make the meal less messy and more fun for the toddler, who’ll be able to feed himself independently.

Sushi

Boil 1 cup of sushi rice in the rice cooker, then add 3 table spoons of rice wine vinegar and 1 table spoon of sugar. Mix thoroughly. The rice is now ready to spread onto nori sheets. Get your toddler to add their favourite sushi fillings (veggies, tuna, salmon, cooked chicken, avocado) and you can make your own sushi the way you prefer it.

Pizza

We have Make Your Own Pizza nights every now and then at home. We use Greek pitta bread as a base, lay out different toppings and each family member chooses what to put on their pizza. My toddler can be a bit impatient and the toppings get eaten before making it to the pizza. But she ends up eating lots of different things and she gets full, and that’s what matters, isn’t it?

Stir-fry

I use honey sauce for the stir-fries I cook for my children. It gives the dish a sweet taste and even my toddler will eat her veggies when they’re sweet. When the honey soy flavour gets too much for me, I cook two different stir-fries (one for the kids and one for the adults), but it’s not hard. I’d use the same ingredients, cook them together, then split them into two woks (ok, I only have one wok, the second one is a pan) and add the sauces.

What are your favourite meals to make for your tot?

Image by GREENFROGGY1 via pixabay.com

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